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  • Border shootings: Will Azeri bullets leave traces on Armenian electi

    Border shootings amid campaign: Will Azeri bullets leave traces on
    Armenian elections?

    Vote 2012 | 28.04.12 | 11:47

    Photolure


    A view of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border from the Tavush province

    By Gohar Abrahamyan
    ArmeniaNow reporter

    Most Armenian parties contesting seats in the National Assembly in the
    May 6 elections say the recent escalation of tensions along the
    Armenian-Azerbaijani border won't disrupt the normal course of the
    country's political process.

    The situation in the northeastern borderline areas of Armenia as well
    as along the line of contact in Karabakh has remained particularly
    tense in the past few days, with the military authorities in both
    Yerevan and Stepanakert reporting a troubling surge in the number of
    ceasefire violations.

    In one such ceasefire violation a kindergarten in the Armenian border
    village of Dovegh had to be evacuated on Wednesday after being
    reportedly hit by automatic gunfire from nearby Azerbaijani army
    positions. No casualties were reported in that gunfire that lasted for
    more than half an hour and was described by local villagers as the
    most ferocious since the 1994 ceasefire.

    Meanwhile, an Armenian ambulance was targeted near the Karabakh-Azeri
    frontline positions, with two ethnic Armenian soldiers wounded in that
    attack.

    And on Friday morning three Armenian soldiers were killed in the
    Tavush province of Armenia in an apparent Azeri sniper attack that
    left their car riddled with bullets.

    Addressing a campaign rally in the Tavush province hours after that
    incident President Serzh Sargsyan, who is also the leader of the
    ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), stressed that such enemy
    attacks could not disrupt the political process in the country.

    `Let no one think that they can take advantage of the political
    processes in our country or think that we are busy with elections. We
    have a strong army and will resort to corresponding steps. I think
    none of you doubts that the enemy will be duly rebuffed,' said
    Sargsyan, addressing people in the town of Stepanavan.

    Residents of the Tavush villages situated close to the border with
    Azerbaijan say Azeri sniper activity has been particularly high in the
    past several weeks - a period coinciding with the springtime farming
    and this year also with the start of the parliamentary election
    campaign in Armenia.

    `Shootings have been a common thing here, but in the past two weeks
    they've become more intensive, so we don't know what they mean by
    that. The fire is so intense that people have stopped taking their
    cattle to the pastures and engaging in spring sowing work in their
    land. It can be said that the village is paralyzed,' says Manvel
    Kamendatyan, the mayor of the village of Nerkin Karmiraghbyur in the
    Tavush province.

    Some political analysts say it is a usual Azeri tactic of heightening
    border tensions ahead of every election in Armenia. But some also say
    by doing this they, willy-nilly, play into the hands of some political
    forces in Armenia who try to capitalize on the `external threat'
    factor in their struggle for votes.

    Manvel Sargsyan, the head of the Armenian Center for National and
    International Studies, cites the remarks of the president made in
    Dilijan as evidence.

    `Immediately, for some reason, the president linked the incident to
    the election campaign, which is a little unclear. So, one can already
    see the desire of the governing force to use the border incidents as
    the external threat factor in its current campaign,' says the analyst.

    Former Deputy Defense Minister Artur Aghabekyan, who is currently an
    MP with the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), also
    addressed the recent border shootings at a meeting with a group of
    intellectuals in Yerevan.

    `If a war is declared on Armenia tomorrow, we are ready to defend
    ourselves, but it won't be easy with the budget and policies that we
    have today. Dashnaktsutyun is the only force capable of ensuring the
    real security of our country. For this it is necessary to raise the
    prestige of our army and turn military service into an honorable
    occupation,' said Aghabekyan. `We have no right to be quiet when three
    of our compatriots have been killed on the border.'

    But member of the opposition Heritage party Armen Martirosyan warned
    against speculating on `the enemy's provocative actions and
    aggression' in the internal political process in Armenia.

    `If it were our internal problem or the problem of hazing in the army,
    in that case we could once again address this problem as an internal
    political matter. But in this case we are dealing with the defense of
    Armenia, and regardless of our positions, I think we all must give our
    support to the army,' said the candidate.


    From: Baghdasarian
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